Gilles Duceppe cost taxpayers $41M: Canadian Taxpayers Federation

OTTAWA — Former Bloc Québécois leader Gilles Duceppe received lifetime achievement accolades in the 14th annual Teddy Waste Award ceremony, put on by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Wednesday to highlight what it deems to be wasteful government spending. Mr. Duceppe lost his seat in last May’s federal election, but the federation said his career in federal politics — performed while dedicated to the cause of Quebec sovereignty — has cost taxpayers a total of $41.8-million.

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“To the recipient of a $2.9-million pension, the gift of a grateful nation, for a lifetime of devoted service toward breaking it up, a man who put his party’s historian on the taxpayer’s payroll to write a book … the man who put his party’s executive director on the parliamentary payroll even though taxpayers subsidize his party, the Bloc Québécois, to the tune of $23.5-million,” Gregory Thomas, the federation’s federal director, said in announcing Mr. Duceppe as the winner.